Cuccinelli: State AGs Not Afraid to Take on the President

State attorneys general are not afraid to stand up to President Barack Obama on Obamacare, unlike insurance companies that could fear blowback from complaining, Virginia GOP Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Friday.

"A lot of the harm is happening to insurance companies and others who, frankly, are just afraid to take on the administration, unlike the attorneys general. We've rather gotten into the habit of doing it when the federal government violates the law," Cuccinelli said on Fox News's "America's Newsroom."

Cuccinelli was one of 11 Republican attorneys general who wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Thursday, claiming the president had broken the law by making repeated changes to his signature healthcare program without seeking the approval of Congress.

Cuccinelli called it a violation of the "separation of powers, because he is trampling on Congress' role in the lawmaking process."

Describing it as an "ongoing problem," Virginia's chief lawyer said Obama "doesn't ever seem to have any sense of shame over violating his first duty, and that's to preserve and protect and uphold the laws of the United States."

He suggested the reason the president did not seek congressional approval is because it would have been a "massive admission of failure" on his part, resulting in humiliation and embarrassment.

Cuccinelli, who lost his bid for governor in November to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, also went so far as to warn that the changes initiated by Obama could also prompt lawsuits over "the next couple of months."

"Whether this will reach the point of litigation is going to be a developing question that I think you're going to see the state AGs continue to play a significant role in," he said.